Stargazing
by The Wolf's Shadow
Summary: After an argument at home everyone does some thinking and make some hard decisions. Songfic. Please R&R.
1. Look at the Stars

Disclaimer: I don't own any part of the TMNT franchise or the characters in it. I don't own the song "Yellow".

* * *

Hurtful words were thrown back and forth across the room. The words were propelled by anger and misunderstanding**. **They were the type that fell like punches and would sting for days. Like one giant slap to the face.

Donatello was tired of listening to them argue. He'd heard it all before.

**Look at the stars**

**Look how they shine for you**

**And everything you do**

**Yeah, they were all yellow**

Pointed accusations. Underlying fears torn to the surface. Flaws revealed, mocked under the harsh light of another's scorn.

Unnoticed, Don walked out of the Lair leaving his brothers to their fight. He knew what would happen next. Raphael would run. No one would hear from him for days. Leonardo would isolate himself in regret and immerse himself in his training. Either way, both would be unreachable. Untouchable by either physical or mental distance. It didn't matter. The result was always the same. Donatello had seen it all before. He didn't need to see it again.

The door closed behind him.

**I came along**

**I wrote a song for you**

**And all the things you do**

**And it was called "Yellow"**

Michelangelo winced. Even from his room, even above the sound of Leonardo and Raphael fighting, even hidden beneath his protecting sheets, he heard the door shut. Donatello had left. _Why wasn't Splinter doing anything? Why didn't he stop them? It shouldn't be like this!_

_Leo and Raph shouldn't have to fight! Why couldn't they just get along like they used to? Why was everything so unfair? Why couldn't they all just be happy?_

Pounding footsteps. The Lair door creaked as it was swung open. Silence reigned after it slammed shut.

Mikey shut his eyes and turned towards the wall. Pulling the covers tighter around himself, he ignored the tears that leaked from between his eyelids.

_Couldn't they just get along?_

**So then I took my time**

**Oh what a thing to've done**

**And it was all yellow**

Splinter meditated. The argument outside would take its natural course and soon everything would be back to normal. He didn't need to interfere.

Splinter knew how hard it was on his sons to live this particular lifestyle. Hidden from the world. Leonardo had been chosen to lead and the others to follow. It worked well to keep his family safe, but did it allow for their happiness? Splinter had never been quite sure of his answer, though at times he had thought he was. Now he questioned his decision again.

What if he had chosen one of his other sons to lead? Or even none at all? Would that have somehow avoided the conflict now occurring in their home? Somehow, he didn't think so. Leonardo and Raphael had always been competitive. Had always had conflicting ideas and and understandings of right and wrong. They were two very different beings, spirits.

Splinter didn't know the answers to his questions. He knew that if he interfered now nothing would change. So he continued to meditate and search for his answers.

Outside his room, a door slammed shut.

**Your skin, oh yeah, your skin and bones**

**Turn into something beautiful**

**D'you know? You know I love you so**

**You know I love you so**

He ran as far away from the fight- _maybe not the fight, maybe his brother, maybe himself_**- **as he could. Raphael's footfalls echoed behind him even as the memory of the expression on Leo's face chased him. Snippets of the words said, the accusations that had been thrown seemed to drag at his heels.

"You're not the boss of me!"

"Hothead! You could have gotten us killed" For once Leo had looked angry.

"Oh yeah? What was I supposed to do? Let them kill her?"

**I swam across**

**I jumped across for you**

**Oh what a thing to do**

**'Cause you were all yellow**

"No," Leo's mouth was a firm line, his eyes narrowed, "But you should have waited for us! You could have been killed!"

"Yeah well, what _do you care?"_

The words caught up and floated past his ears. _Could have been killed... No... Hothead... Should have waited..._

The angry look-_ not angry,_ _shocked, betrayed, hurt_- on his brother's face accompanied Raphael's guilty thoughts.

He kept running.

**I drew a line**

**I drew a line for you**

**Oh what a thing to do**

**And it was all yellow**

Leonardo watched the door close. _What just happened?_ Shock, betrayal, and hurt rearranged into something unidentifiable. For a moment he just stood in front of the door with this non-expression on his face. The moment passed.

_He should know better by now. He shouldn't risk our family like that! _Leo walked to Mikey's bedroom and stood in the doorway. _Maybe if I'd kept up with him this wouldn't have happened. No... If he hadn't run ahead of us _none_ of this would have happened. Why can't Raphael just stop running! It doesn't help anything!_

Leo stood in the doorway and watched Mikey sleep. He looked so young, vulnerable. Mikey's eye ridges were drawn together ever so slightly. The corner of his mouth was turned down; frowning in his sleep.

Leo's non-expression changed to match Michelangelo's. His shoulders dropped and he sighed.

_Neither does this._

**Your skin, oh yeah, your skin and bones**

**Turn into something beautiful**

**D'you know? For you I bleed myself dry**

**For you I bleed myself dry**

Raphael climbed the fire escape and entered the room. He looked back out the window at the rain. He didn't need a cold while he was gone. It was late and dark; no one would notice him if he waited it out here for a while. Unfortunately, he had chosen his escape poorly. Something stirred in the room.

He turned his back to the window and looked for the source of the noise. His eyes met the sight of toys scattered across the floor, children's books in a pile next to a small dresser, and a little bed.

A little girl sat up in her bed and looked through the dark at him. He didn't move, hoping she wouldn't see him and go back to sleep. She saw him.

"Hello." Her quiet voice carried through the silence.

Uncertain. Gruff. "Hi."

**It's true**

**Look how they shine for you**

**Look how they shine for you**

**Look how they shine for**

Splinter had left his room and was now watching his sons sleep. Both of them seemed calm, peaceful in their sleep as opposed to earlier events which certainly weren't. Splinter was glad Leonardo had fallen asleep, otherwise he knew Leo would be tearing himself apart from the inside out. For once the cycle had deviated.

Leo's face was uncommonly open as he slept. He looked as if he had come to terms with a hard decision and that he would be fine whatever the outcome. He lay on top of the sheets towards his youngest brother. From Splinter's view from the doorway, Leo's position was decidedly protective.

**Look how they shine for you**

**Look how they shine for you**

**Look how they shine for**

Michelangelo's features were arranged to show worry and concern. He was on his side, curled loosely in the fetal position. His chin rested on his plastron.

As Splinter turned to leave the floor creaked. Michelangelo shifted. He brought his head up so it lightly touched his brother's plastron and his knees were drawn up closer to his chin. Seeking comfort; he found some. Some of the worry left Mikey's face. Splinter saw this from over his shoulder.

He left then. He wouldn't meditate any more tonight and would instead get some sleep of his own.

_Perhaps they will find their own answers._

**Look at the stars**

**Look how they shine for you**

**And all the things that you do**

Donatello had been sitting there for hours now. He continued to look out of the grate into the night sky. Soon it wouldn't be night anymore. The sky was already beginning to lighten. Leaning against the sewer wall with his legs pulled up to his chest, he tilted his head back and looked for stars.

He'd never been able to understand why people insisted on polluting. The had all that beauty right above their heads, yet they couldn't see its value. These were the people that his family tried to help. He shook his head to get rid of these thoughts._ You can't see stars through smog. _As it was, he could only make out a few dim stars above his head. He'd seen Pinocchio and heard children's rhymes about wishing on stars, but Donatello has never actually tried it. He'd never had the time or the inclination.

But tonight he really wanted a wish. Gazing at the stars, he picked the brightest one and wished harder than he had ever wished before.

Coming home early, Raphael watched his brother from the shadows. Looking up through the grate, he wished with his brother.

_"I wish everything would be okay."_


	2. Little Star

Disclaimer: I don't own any part of the TMNT franchise or the characters in it. I don't own Jewel's "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star".

* * *

It was raining outside. Sarah never slept well when it rained, and tonight she was having more trouble than usual. The window was open to let fresh air into her room, but it let something else in too. The curtains made a sound as if they were brushing against something, and the sound registered in Sarah's ears.

Sitting up, Sarah searched her room from the bed. Maybe there was a monster in the closet again, but no. It was something completely different. Her eyes latched onto the strange figure by the window. Not a monster, more like a really big turtle. She softly said to it, "Hello."

It said back, "Hi."

**Twinkle, twinkle, little star**  
**How I wonder what you are**  
**Up above the world so high**  
**Like a diamond in the sky**

_Dang it! I've been seen. What do I do? _Thinking fast, Raphael responded to the little girl. "Hi."_ She could start sceamin' any minute. I gotta leave. _Raph turned back towards the window to leave, but once again the little girl spoke to him.

"What's your name?"

Raphael turned back towards her.

**When the blazing sun is gone,**  
**When he nothing shines upon,**  
**Then you show your little light,**  
**Twinkle, twinkle, all the night.**

"Raphael."

Sarah squinted at the the figure by the window through the dark, trying to see him better. "Are you a twurtle?"

For a moment the figure didn't say anything, but when he did he said, "Yeah, why?" The turtle man looked uncomfortable, as he stood across the room.

"Turtles are cold-bwuded. You're a twurtle so you're cold."

**Then the traveler in the dark**  
**Thanks you for your tiny spark**  
**He could not see which way to go**  
**If you did not twinkle so**

_Looks like I've got a little genius on my hands._ Raphael snapped out of his thoughts when the girl got out bed. He stiffened as she walked towards him, a blanket from her bed trailing behind her. She stopped in front of him.

"You can have my bwank-it."

He looked down at her. "Listen kid, I don't need your blanket."

She just held out the blanket to him. He grudgingly took it. _She's a pushy little kid,_ thought Raph as he put the blankets around his shoulders. He relaxed a little, letting his shoulders drop. She had just given him her blanket, it didn't seem like she was going to start screaming anytime soon... And he might have been a little cold...

**In the dark blue sky you keep**  
**And often through my curtains peep**  
**For you never shut your eye**  
**Till the sun is in the sky**

Sarah smiled as she saw the turtle-man relax. She hurried back to her bed though because it was _cold. _Once she had hopped onto the bed and looked back towards the window she saw that the turtle-man, Raphael, had followed her. She pulled the covers back up to her middle while she sat in bed.

The turtle-man stood by her bed just looking at her. _He's weird._ She looked up at him. "Do you have sistwers?"

Raphael answered, "No. I've got three brothers though."

**As your bright and tiny spark**  
**Lights the traveler in the dark**  
**Though I know not what you are**  
**Twinkle, twinkle, little star**

"One of them was bein' an idiot, that's why I'm here."

The girl gave him a hard look. "Idwit's a bad word. You need soap in your mowth, Mister!"

_Even she's against me! _"Yeah, well, if he hadn't been an idiot I wouldn't have had to say it!"

While before they had both bean whispering, their volume had been increasing all night culminating in footsteps sounding from behind the bedroom door. They were adult-human-sized footsteps. Raph vanished as soon as he heard them while Sarah threw herself further under the covers.

**Twinkle, twinkle, little star**  
**How I wonder what you are**  
**Up above the world so high**  
**Like a diamond in the sky**

Sarah shut her eyes tight and rolled onto her side. She tried desperately to slow her breathing as she listened to her mom come into her room. Sarah lay extremely still, almost holder her breath.

After what seemed like hours, Sarah heard a sigh and then her mom walked back out. The door clicked shut. She waited another minute until she couldn't take it anymore. She slid out of bed and got on her hands and knees, looking under the bed. She found him again in the dark. She giggled quietly. "You're silly."

"Sure kid."

Outside it had stopped raining.

**Twinkle, twinkle, little star**  
**How I wonder what you are**  
**How I wonder what you are**

Raphael crawled out from under the bed and stood again, the blanket falling from his shoulders and to the floor in the process. The little girl stood up too and crossed her arms. "You need to 'pol-a-gize to your bwother. And He needs to 'pol-a-gize for be'in an idwit."

"I thought "idiot" was a bad word."

"I forgot." She looked at her toes.

Raph turned and walked to the window. He'd been out to long. _It's not raining anymore. _Looking over his shoulder he said, "Take care, kid."

The little girl looked tired. "My name's Sarah."

"See ya, Sarah."

"Bye-bye, Waph."

Raph ran home.


	3. When You Wish

Disclaimer: I don't own any part of the TMNT franchise or the characters in it. I don't own this rhyme either.

* * *

Raphael ran, but for a different reason.

He should be home.

**Star light**

Don couldn't think straight, sitting under the grating.

Everything was so wrong.

**Star bright  
**

When Raph got to that junction, he felt like his heart was in his throat.

He looked so... _sad._

**I wish I may**

"I wish everything would be okay."

That's when he decided to show himself.

**I wish I might**

A hand on his shoulder, he looked up.

"Hey, it's gettin' late."

**Have the wish**

They crept back into the lair, hiding uncertain in the shadows.

Moments later they found themselves in their brother's room.

**I wish tonight**

As Splinter watched his sons sleep, he couldn't help a smile.


End file.
